A Symposium on the North American Economy

Abstract

T he North American economy in 1999 was made up of 395 million people, 193 million workers, and $10.3 trillion of annual GDP. According to the OECD, in the U.S. economy, 269 million people and 139 million workers produced $9190 billion in GDP in 1999. The 30 million people and the 16 million workers of Canada produced $624 billion in GDP. The 96 million people and 38 million workers of Mexico produced $475 billion in GDP. This continental economy is staggeringly unequal. Less than 4 percent of Canadian workers and less than 3 percent of U.S. workers are in primary sectors— agriculture, fisheries, and forestry. But one out of five of Mexico’s workers is in the primary sector. GDP per capita in the United States is some $33,900. GDP per capita in Canada at recent exchange rates is $20,400. GDP per capita in Mexico is $4900. Using purchasing power exchange rates to calculate per capita GDP rather than market exchange rates does close the gap a bit. It raises Canada’s per capita GDP to $25,900 per year and Mexico’s to $8100. Even so, the U.S. level is one-third higher than Canada and quadruple that of Mexico. Moreover, within Mexico, the contrasts between the richest portions of the industrial north and the poorest portions of the near-subsistence south are as great as the contrasts between Mexico and the United States. The economic differences between the three nations are, in many ways, greater than the differences in other measures of well-being. Female life expectancy at birth in Mexico at 77 years compares not unfavorably to the 79 years of the U.S. and the 81 years of Canada. Infant mortality in Mexico at 16 per thousand is worse than the eight per thousand of the United States or the six per thousand of Canada—but the gap is not as wide as one might expect based on the per capita GDP figures.